$100 in 1944 is worth $176 in 1964,
because prices increased 76.1% over that period, an average of
2.87% a year.
$100 in 1944 has
the same buying power as
$176
in 1964
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
76.1%
Average inflation rate
2.87% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$176
Price difference ($100 base)
$76.14
CPI in 1944
17.6
CPI in 1964
31
Inflation in 1944
1.73%
Inflation in 1964
1.31%
$100 in 1944 → 1964
$176
$100 in 1964 → 1944
$56.77
What happened to prices between 1944 and 1964
Between 1944 and 1964, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.6 to 31.
Cumulatively, prices increased 76.1%, which works out to an average of
2.87% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1944 bought what
$0.57 buys in 1964: the 1944 dollar
lost 43.2% of its purchasing power over
these 20 years.
Consumer prices rose just 1.7% in 1944, down from 1943’s
6.1% and the slowest increase of the war years, as price and wage controls
held the cost of living nearly flat even as the conflict reached its most
expensive phase. The war itself turned decisively that June, when more than
150,000 Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy, France, opening the
long-planned second front against Nazi Germany. Congress used the same
month to plan for the war’s end, passing the GI Bill on June 22 to give
returning veterans money for college or vocational training, low-cost home
and business loans, and unemployment benefits, a package that would reshape
American housing and higher education for a generation. The following
month, delegates from 44 Allied nations gathered at Bretton Woods, New
Hampshire, and agreed to peg their currencies to the U.S. dollar, itself
pegged to gold, creating the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank
to manage the new system. Consumer prices stood 77.8% above their
1913 level, a cumulative wartime rise held down by controls
that would start unwinding the following year. First-class postage held at
3 cents, and the minimum wage stayed at 30 cents an hour.
Every 1944 amount converts to 1964 at the same ratio, 1.76: $1,000 becomes
$1,761, and $10,000 becomes $17,614.
Amount in 1944
Value in 1964
$1.00
$1.76
$5.00
$8.81
$10.00
$17.61
$20.00
$35.23
$50.00
$88.07
$100
$176
$500
$881
$1,000
$1,761
$5,000
$8,807
$10,000
$17,614
$100,000
$176,136
$1,000,000
$1,761,364
Inflation by spending category, 1944–1964
Between 1944 and 1964, medical care rose the most, up 112.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 58.7%, against 76.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1944
spending costs in 1964, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1944 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.87%
$176
Medical care
3.83%
$212
Transportation
3.46%
$197
Food
3.16%
$186
Apparel
2.34%
$159
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1944: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1944 to 1964
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.38% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (1.16% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1944–1964 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1944, at end
1944–1950
5.38%
36.9%
$137
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$168
1960–1964
1.16%
4.7%
$176
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1944
$100 from 1944 had already become $153 by
1954, on its way to $176 in 1964; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 14.4% in 1947, and prices fell 1.2% in 1949, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1964, prices rose 1.3% and $100 from 1944 had the buying
power of $176; the year's average CPI of 31 is the level
behind every 1964 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.3% in 1964, matching 1963’s pace
even as a large federal tax cut took effect that year. The Revenue Act of
1964, signed February 26, lowered individual and corporate tax rates
significantly, the cut Kennedy had proposed the year before his death and
Johnson pushed through Congress as a Keynesian bet that lower taxes would
spur enough growth without stoking prices. Congress reshaped civil rights
law that July 2, when the Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed discrimination
based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin in employment
and public accommodations, the most sweeping civil rights legislation
since Reconstruction. Vietnam policy shifted that August, when Congress
passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution after reported attacks on U.S. Navy
destroyers, authorizing Johnson to use military force in Vietnam without
a formal declaration of war. American pop culture changed that February
too: the Beatles landed at New York’s Kennedy Airport and played the Ed
Sullivan Show two days later for an estimated 73 million viewers,
igniting the “British Invasion.” Consumer prices finished 1964 213.1%
above their 1913 level. First-class postage held at 5
cents, and the minimum wage stayed at $1.25 an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1944 to 1964: $100 is worth $176 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1944-to-1964/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1944 to 1964. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1944-to-1964/